Topic: Microsoft

Software behemoth Microsoft on Tuesday announced that its next-generation desktop operating system would not follow the numerical progression of its two predecessors -- which would have made it Windows 9 -- but will instead be called Windows 10.

Though Steve Ballmer is no longer CEO of Microsoft or even on its board of directors, he's still fiercely loyal to the company he led, which is why he will have his basketball team, Los Angeles Clippers, ditch their use of Apple's iPad.

Actress Jen Taylor, who voiced the the Cortana AI character in Halo games as well as providing the voice of Microsoft's identically named Siri-like assistant for Windows Mobile, actually uses an iPhone.

A new television spot from Microsoft's Windows Phone division again puts Siri on the iPhone 5s up against Cortana on an HTC One M8, though the video slants more toward a hardware comparison than Microsoft's previous Siri-focued efforts.

Nearly six months after Steve Ballmer handed over the reins at Microsoft, the former CEO on Tuesday announced he is also resigning from the company's board, citing outside responsibilities like a new role as owner of the Los Angeles Clippers.

Confirming reports that Skype no longer works with older versions of Apple's OS X, Microsoft on Thursday announced it has ended support for Macs running OS X 10.5.8 Leopard or earlier in Skype's most recent version, though a Leopard-specific variant is on the way.

Apple's iconic glass cube may soon get a neighbor in longtime rival Microsoft, which is supposedly in negotiations to open a retail space on New York's Fifth Ave., just a few blocks away from the city's flagship Apple Store.

Microsoft on Friday filed a lawsuit with a New York district court claiming Samsung is in breach of an Android patent cross-licensing contract after failing to turn over an undisclosed amount in royalty payments.

Microsoft's Office for iPad suite, which includes Word, Excel and PowerPoint, was given a significant update on Thursday, giving users the ability to utilize third-party fonts in Word, and the option to export files as PDFs in all three programs, among other new additions.

Microsoft on Tuesday rolled out a major update to its Apple-centric OneNote product line, adding new features like access to notes stored in OneDrive for Business or SharePoint Online, inserting files and note reorganization and sharing.

In a new ad released on Monday, Microsoft highlights the apparent inadequacies of Apple's Siri virtual assistant, which is pitted unfavorably in a head-to-head feature test with "Cortana," its Windows 8.1 analog.

Apple reported "strong double digit growth" in its Mac sales in the U.S., directly contradicting the earlier estimates published by IDC and Gartner that stated Apple's U.S. Mac sales fell year-over-year in the June quarter and calling into question the legitimacy of market estimates that the tech media uncritically presents as factual.

When Apple and IBM announced plans to codevelop new iOS apps and jointly sell and support iPhones and iPad to enterprise customers, the news was greeted as if it were a new experiment. However, the deal is actually an extension of IBM's mobile strategy that has included massive deployments of iOS devices and native apps.

Microsoft, as was expected, announced on Thursday that it will be laying off employees this year, but the total number of cuts are much higher than anticipated, representing by far the largest-ever personnel reduction in the Windows maker's history.

Apple's newly announced mobile partnership with IBM has been greeted by a number of analysts and pundits as being both "not that big a deal," or conversely, the dramatic reversal of a long standing rivalry. Both are wrong, here's why.

Redmond, Wash., software giant Microsoft, which has struggled to find an answer to the success of Apple's iPad and iPhone, is said to be planning major staff reductions that could be the single biggest round of layoffs in the company's history.

According to a rumor, Microsoft's expected foray into the burgeoning wearables market will be an activity-minded wristband-style device that works with all major mobile platforms including Windows Phone, Google's Android and Apple's iOS.